ESFA
(Did you mean the Evansville SF Association?)
A club founded in December 1945 in Rahway, New Jersey, when George R. Fox, Sam Moskowitz, Lloyd Alpaugh, Bob Gaulin and Joe Kennedy decided to start a club and to call it the NULL-A Men. Moskowitz noted that it was the only club in history named after a book that no member liked (The World of Null-Ā by A. E. van Vogt), but it was quickly re-named ESFA, the Eastern Science Fiction Association. (Harry Warner describes the Null-A Men as having been "gobbled-up" by the ESFA.) Its members were called ESFAns. Other early members included Lester Mayer, and Julius Postal. In its first year, it had at least one Black member, according to Sam Moskowitz in The Immortal Storm.
In March 1946, it organized the FPWESFC — the First Post-War Eastern Science Fiction Conference chaired by Sam Moskowitz, who continued to lead the club. (Mike McInerney remembered that "Sam was the main force and authority in the club. His large stature and booming voice commanded attention.") In April 1946, it held a (re-)organizational meeting during which it finally adopted the name ESFA, adopted bylaws, and suchlike. There were around 15 members.
It met monthly on Sunday afternoons. During the 1950s, it met at Slovak-Sokel Hall, then at the (even dingier) Academy Hall and then in the ’60s in the basement of the YMCA in Newark, NJ, and often had New York pros as speakers. Following the formal meeting, there was usually a dinner after-meeting at a local cafeteria.
It was a very sercon organization — toward the end of 1947, meetings degenerated into bitter arguments over whether there was such a thing as fantasy music or whether to boycott Amazing for printing the Shaver Mysteries. Gerry de la Ree (and a few others) quit the club in disgust over this sort of bickering. What Joe Kennedy remembered most fondly, though, was the bull sessions after the meetings.
They ran a convention, Open ESFA, which they regarded merely as an extra meeting, open to all, and some larger conventions including the 1959 Eastern Science Fiction Conference (put on jointly with the Hydra Club).
1949 officers[edit]
| From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959 |
| Eastern SF Association of New York City and New Jersey; Sam Moskowitz' group. It was first organized as the Null-A Men in December 1945 ("Just missed being named the Odd Johns", records Kennedy) with such members as SaM, Alpaugh, and Joe Kennedy. 28 April 1946, after this group had put on the FPWESFC, the club was reorganized as the ESFA, incorporating new blood turned up at the con. |
| Club | 1945—1970s |
| This is a club page. Please extend it by adding information about when and where the club met, when and by whom it was founded, how long it was active, notable accomplishments, well-known members, clubzines, any conventions it ran, external links to the club's website, other club pages, etc.
When there's a floreat (Fl.), this indicates the time or times for which we have found evidence that the club existed. This is probably not going to represent the club's full lifetime, so please update it if you can! |
